Insurance premiums *rant*

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stacey_lou

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Last night I renewed my insurance and changed from NFU to Pet Plan by the advise of my vet and recommendations and my premiums is more than my car insurance!!!! I couldnt believe it but I know that they are said to be the best and unlike other companies they only insure pets and horses.

I am sure premiums have gone up or could just be beacuse I have changed companies but I suppose you get what you pay for
 
All insurance businesses are interlinked, it doesn't matter if they are car insurers, house & content, life or horse insurers the market can be influenced by numerous things. We were warned that all premiums would rise following some massive natural disasters i.e. Japan's Tsunami, Haiti earthquake, Usa's flooding & Tornados. The money to pay out for that damage has to come from someone & that 'someone' is us who buy insurance.

Premiums will increase on everything for the companies to try & recover money that they will be paying out. After all they are a business not a charity. All premiums at all companies will rise, it's just a matter of how much.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want my premiums to rise, I'm nothing to do with insurance companies, I'm just telling it how it is. :(
 
Toby_Zaphod- you are unfortunately right! The 'pool' has taken a hell of a hit and needs to recoup some how! (You will also find alot of insurance policies are underwritten by the same people just interpreted differently on different schemes)
 
I pay £63 per year of my mare with KBIS (Insured @ £700, theft, straying, public liability - no vets fees) or when i had my youngster (also insured for £700) I had £5000 vets + £500 tack etc which cost £25 per month through SEIB also if you call them and quote "Derby house" you get a free £100 voucher too yay! My premium was about £250 so got nearly half back to spend on new things for her from the derby house range. (PS have now sold the mare and still got the voucher only had 3 months worth of premiums in the end LMAO!!!)
 
On the radio about a week ago the man said that insurance premiums have gone up because for every £100 paid to the insurance company, £122 was being paid out in claims..
 
Yeah, you have to look at who actually underwrites the business. Although Petplan does only offer horse and small animal insurance, it is underwritten by Allianz who write lots of stuff.

Premiums have to go up looking at what they've paid out the year before and projected losses for the year ahead, to make sure they have enough money in the pot to pay out for claims.

One problem is people making fraudulent claims, which obviously puts the claims paid out figure up and the company then needs to try and gain some of the money back.

Annoying thing with pet insurance is, the premiums will never decrease on a yearly basis, like no-claims bonuses. They will always increase!
 
All the horses we bother to insure are with PetPlan. yes they are extremly expensive and we spend huge amounts on premiums. But they have always paid up on every claim and been very helpful. THey have paid for one horse to have 3MRI scans over the last couple years and on another (who only had 5k vets) they eventually paid up almost 9.5k (it was complicated but they were so helpful, and the horse wouldnt be here now if it wasnt for that!)

And yes they costa hell of a lot more than the 4cars and the lorry, and the tractor, and the quad!!
 
To be fair I have herd a lot of good reviews on Pet Plan which is why in the end i bit the bullet and paid £300 more than other companies had beacuse like they all say you get what you pay for.

Its crazy how expensive it is to live these days, I went a 2 weeks with out insurance as I was mean to renew it 2 weeks ago then saturday just gone my girl was booted in the field leaving a hole through her flesh and muscle narrowly avoiding the bone leaving her with 10 staples a weeks supply of drugs and 6 injections poor pony she was in so much pain. fortunatly so the vets bill are not too bad but my physio bill will be through the roof so taking on part time bar work on top of work so I can pay for as much treatment as she needs.

Just sods law I guess, I should have renewed it a week or so before it was due to run out but as I was switching companies and lifes been so hetic I didnt. stupid mistake which is now costing me
 
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All those who have given the reason for the increase being due to claims are bang on! Unfortunately horse insurance really does not make insurance companies any money and, as mentioned, they are a business at the end of the day. I worked as an underwriter for horse insurance for many years up until last year and when you think an average annual premium is between £250 and £350 but the average claim is around £1200 you can see how the figures will just not stack up!

Thankfully though horse insurance IS optional - personally i am dreading my car insurance renewal coming through!!!
 
I wish mine was optional beacuse then I could put the money I would be paying away into a savings account then at the end of the year I could use the money else where but in BE I am told insurance is a must and I would guess the same applys to BSJA and BD.
 
stacey_lou said:
I wish mine was optional beacuse then I could put the money I would be paying away into a savings account then at the end of the year I could use the money else where but in BE I am told insurance is a must and I would guess the same applys to BSJA and BD.
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Is that correct? I didn't know that - I can see that insurance for say, causing 3rd party damage could be obligatory. I haven't looked for a while as not eventing at the moment but thought there was some standard 3rd party insurance offered if you were a member anyway.

Mine are both insured regardless and I am with NFU but would just be interested to know..
 
I just got my premium from NFU and it had gone up over £200 a year after no claims. I cancelled it and went to KBIS who gave me a good quote, seem to have a good reputation on here and my vet was happy with them too.
 
Luci07 said:
Is that correct? I didn't know that - I can see that insurance for say, causing 3rd party damage could be obligatory. I haven't looked for a while as not eventing at the moment but thought there was some standard 3rd party insurance offered if you were a member anyway.

Mine are both insured regardless and I am with NFU but would just be interested to know..
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I think so, though Dad said that I should either way incase she did get loose and hurts someone and not only that with such a high risk factor with going across country I feel its only sensible. Ill have a read through the rule book properly later
 
stacey_lou said:
I think so, though Dad said that I should either way incase she did get loose and hurts someone and not only that with such a high risk factor with going across country I feel its only sensible. Ill have a read through the rule book properly later
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I would imagine that is you only need liability cover - you do not NEED cover for the horse itself (ie, death, vets fees etc etc) It is probably worthwhile having some form of personal accident policy if you are taking part in what are considered the more dangerous sports.

I think most organisations (BSJA etc) include some PL cover in their membership anyway, I would have though the same applied to BE? If not then you can become a member of the BHS and you automatically get PL cover for (I think )£10,000,000 and that'll only cost you around £50 odd a year.
 
British Eventing does not require competitors to have insurance for their horses and public liability insurance is bundled with the Full membership - so all competitors are covered for that automatically. Same with BD and BS.

So the "getting loose and hurting someone" is covered by your BE membership. The decision you need to take is whether the risk of horse injury through eventing is such that vets fees insurance is sensible. However, it isn't a requirement - the choice is yours.
 
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